Grounds for the establishment and activities of the legal support program for small and medium-sized enterprises in Vietnam

Grounds for the establishment and activities of the legal support program for small and medium-sized enterprises in Vietnam​ (Image from the Internet)

1. Grounds and Activities of the Legal Support Program for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises in Vietnam

The grounds and activities of the legal support program for small and medium-sized enterprises in Vietnam according to Article 10 Decree 55/2019/ND-CP are as follows:

- Legal basis for building the legal support program for small and medium-sized enterprises:

+ The need for legal support for small and medium-sized enterprises in various periods, industries, fields, and localities;

+ The legislative agenda of the National Assembly, the Standing Committee of the National Assembly, and the plan for promulgating legal documents of the Government of Vietnam, the Prime Minister of the Government of Vietnam, ministries, ministerial-level agencies, and provincial-level local governments;

+ Resources of the ministries, ministerial-level agencies, provincial-level local governments, and organizations representing enterprises.

- The activities of the Legal Support Program for small and medium-sized enterprises include:

+ Information provision activities, including domestic legal information, foreign legal information, international law, warnings of legal risks, and policies of industries and localities related to small and medium-sized enterprises (if any);

+ Legal knowledge training activities, including legal knowledge training for small and medium-sized enterprises, training legal knowledge for those engaged in legal support for small and medium-sized enterprises, and legal knowledge training for the network of legal advisors;

+ Legal consulting activities, including dialogues, resolving legal issues for enterprises, and other legal consulting activities compliant with legal regulations based on the needs of small and medium-sized enterprises and resources specified in point c, clause 1, Article 10 Decree 55/2019/ND-CP.

2. Duration of the Legal Support Program for small and medium-sized enterprises

The duration of the legal support program for small and medium-sized enterprises according to Article 11 Decree 55/2019/ND-CP is as follows:

- The legal support program for small and medium-sized enterprises has a maximum duration of 05 years from the date of approval.

- Agencies and organizations leading the implementation of the legal support program for small and medium-sized enterprises are responsible for organizing a summary to build or propose building a legal support program for small and medium-sized enterprises based on enterprise needs and the agency's resources.

3. Regulations on Implementing the Legal Support Program for small and medium-sized enterprises

Regulations on implementing the legal support program for small and medium-sized enterprises according to Article 13 Decree 55/2019/ND-CP are as follows:

- After the legal support program for small and medium-sized enterprises is approved by a competent state agency, ministries, ministerial-level agencies, and provincial-level People's Committees are responsible for implementing the program within the scope of their functions and tasks or assigning the implementation to agencies, organizations, or individuals with functions and tasks to support legal matters for small and medium-sized enterprises.

The agencies or organizations leading the legal support program for small and medium-sized enterprises must issue and publicly announce the implementation plan on their electronic information portal and the Legal Support Information Portal for small and medium-sized enterprises of the Ministry of Justice.

- The selection, contracting, evaluation of results, and contract liquidation with agencies, organizations, or individuals having the function to provide legal support services for small and medium-sized enterprises to implement program activities shall be carried out following bidding laws and related legal regulations.

- Based on the contents and resources of the legal support program for small and medium-sized enterprises pursuant to clause 1, Article 13 Decree 55/2019/ND-CP and the legal support needs of member small and medium-sized enterprises, representative organizations for enterprises may propose a legal support program for small and medium-sized enterprises they lead.

+ Based on the contents and resources of the legal support program for small and medium-sized enterprises pursuant to clause 1, Article 13 Decree 55/2019/ND-CP, ministries, ministerial-level agencies, and provincial-level People's Committees may support up to 50% of the program's budget as proposed by representative organizations for enterprises from the budget of the legal support program for small and medium-sized enterprises pursuant to clause 1, Article 13 Decree 55/2019/ND-CP. The remaining funds are covered by the representing organization or sourced through private investment and fund-raising from agencies, organizations, and enterprises.

+ The selection, contracting, evaluation of results, and contract liquidation with representative organizations for enterprises to implement the legal support program for small and medium-sized enterprises stipulated in clause 2, Article 13 Decree 55/2019/ND-CP shall be performed in accordance with bidding laws and related legal regulations.

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